Donna Auston, a doctoral candidate in Anthropology, started the hashtag #BlackMuslimRamadan on July 8th. Auston told BuzzFeed she started the hashtag in order to increase visibility and exert a greater level of control over the American Muslim narrative, where black Muslims are rarely included. Auston also said she launched the…
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Cancer took my grandmother when I was 17-years-old. Actually God did. At the time, I was a high school social butterfly, fully immersed in the world and all its distractions, but within a year of my grandmother’s death, I underwent a metamorphosis. My grandmother’s health began to fail in 2011…
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Ramadan is almost over and while the month is an important period of fasting, spiritual reflection and gratefulness, its ending signifies another wonderful occasion – Eid! A time to gather with family and friends to mark the conclusion of fasting, Eid is traditionally celebrated by wearing new clothes, exchanging gifts with loved ones and…
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Some of the first stories I ever loved were ones from the Qur’an and hadith. They filled the colorful pages of picture books my mother kept on a high shelf right next to the shelf where we stored the more stately hardbound, gold-trimmed volumes of the Qur’an. These stories are…
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The idea grew out of the tragedy of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. A dear friend of mine of Jewish faith, horrified at the growing intolerance and hate in the world and the comments she was hearing that the Paris attacks somehow represented the values of Islam, approached me to…
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My girlfriends and I talk constantly about how difficult it is for us to find suitable husbands nowadays. “We’re amazing,” we reassure ourselves, half-jokingly, half-sincerely. “Anyone would be lucky to nab us!” Maybe we are all amazing, but there is something a little extra that I bring to the table–I…
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[title maintitle=”” subtitle=”Introducing With A Spin’s Ramadan/Eid Holiday Cookie Cutter Gift Set and discount code for altMuslimah readers”] What is it that you’ve set out to do with With A Spin? What inspired the idea? I’ve always enjoyed adding my personal spin to the culture I was brought up in with…
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Sofia always used to look forward to Ramadan. It wasn’t the religious rituals or the spirituality of the holy Islamic month that was most appealing. Rather, she says, “it was because my family would praise me for not eating”. But early last year, Sofia, who’s currently a university…
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Turning points have a way of finding you when you least expect them. For most of my adult life, I’d been running away from serving as a spokesperson for or an expert of Muslim women. Women’s issues always felt like the sideshow in the American Muslim conversation, and I wanted…
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People amaze me. With their strength; their courage; their resilience; their tenacity; their compassion. I think there’s nothing more powerful or empowering than feeling inspired by the personal story of another – learning from their struggles and triumphs, gaining strength from their patience and determination, feeling emboldened by their resolve…
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